---Maddy---
Maddy and her two companions had an uneventful walk to Bandpass. Maddy made sure to do the bare minimum social upkeep asking the two how their choices had been – both had chosen Body foundations. Troy had chosen one that focused his strengths into key areas – his bow drawing capabilities, his eyesight, etc – and set his whole stomach as his weak spot while he was at it.
…Maddy didn’t quite get the point of picking a weak spot, but didn’t want to make the kid regret his choice. Maybe the tradeoff from picking that was worth it?
Jess in comparison had chosen one that diffused her strength and defense throughout her body – deciding everything was important but in turn making nothing important.
Both mentioned feeling quite a bit different, and it was only once Maddy realized she was paying attention to them perfectly – while also thinking about skill breaking – that she noticed her change as well.
Currently it was a subtle sort of thing – if Maddy had to compare herself before and after the transformation, she would definitely say she was better at multitasking despite her relatively low number of mental stats…
Even if it was only two separate trains of thought, the fact that she hadn’t slipped and missed a single word or mixed parts between them was apparent.
And now there were three trains of thought.
One on the conversation, one on skill breaking and a final on how she was multitasking well…
As a quick TLDR; how she thought hadn’t changed in the slightest, but the degree she could split her focus had changed drastically.
…A much more important train of thought was about life and death magic.
She was trying not to feel too paranoid or waste too much time on trying to figure out the ‘why’ of things.
* I need to figure out what ‘breaking’ a skill entails. Breaking is usually used in a negative context, I want to know what it actually is before I attempt it.
* Per the quest, I have some options, the only one that mentions magic is the first one – using my skill for the opposite goal.
Maddy ignored the first point for now – she would need to consult people or find information on it before she got anywhere.
Instead, Maddy brainstormed what 'using her skill opposite to its alignment' meant.
It’s a skill that attacks something – so I would need to use it to protect someone? Wouldn’t killing something that was attacking someone count?
What was it that the note said? I would need to break it into life and death magic?
So… let's assume necrotic damage is ‘death’ what I need to do is use it to create ‘life’?
Would making a bunch of fertilizer and then planting stuff in it count?
Is there a better option? Something faster? How long would planting stuff in melted fleshy goop take?
What do I think of when I hear ‘life’ magic?
…creating life. Plants, nature and stuff, right? Anything living? Maybe something sketchy? Aphrodisiacs and baby-making spells?
What would it be in a video game? Let’s say death magic means necrosis, life magic would be something like healing right? Anti necrosis? So I could try and figure out how to heal someone with necrosis?
“You okay? You seem to be thinking hard about something?”
Maddy found herself staring into Jess’s eyes. The woman had spun around into her path and was staring at her curiously while walking backwards.
“I am actually, sorry was I spacing out? I didn’t mean to be reclusive.” Maddy laughed.
“I’ve been thinking. What’s your opinion on the changes to the so called ‘game’?” Maddy explained herself.
“I guess the tutorial is over? I get why resurrection now has a cost – otherwise we won’t care about dying – but why is it that pain mitigation has dropped? I don’t understand why that’s been taken away.” Jess responded, seeming to relax slightly as she spun back around.
A few moments of silence passed before Jess spoke once again – so soft Maddy had to strain to hear in the silence.
“What was that flashback from hell.” She whispered, more vulnerable than she had ever been.
Bonding experience.
“I saw my mom.” Maddy spoke, using the truth to appear more sincere.
“Lots and lots of my mom…” Maddy waited a moment then added a bit more as bait.
“You ever browsed r-slash raised by narcissists? That might give you an idea of what my childhood was like.”
Why do I revert to this when stressed? I’m not planning on being shady! I just want to become a good friend. That’s it.
After a moment Jess responded.
“I lost the use of my legs three years ago – soccer accident. I had to relive the injury and following years – each and every minor difficulty I had because I couldn’t walk. Knowing it would never get better, I would never be active again. I thought…I thought this ‘game’ was a dream. That I was back to being a cripple. That’s why I chose a ‘generalized’ body you know? I don’t want to ever have a single part of my body broken like that again.” Jess's voice grew firm at the end instead of wavering.
“What’s that?” Troy spoke for the first time in a while pointing at something in front of them.
Still a ways away, the grass seemed to retreat from a small stone wall. The wall was low – just a bit taller than Maddy’s head – but nothing appeared to be beyond it.
As they got closer and closer, a gate came into view – metal doors opening inwards at the end of the path.
Soon the group was standing at the entrance staring into and down in slight shock.
Bandpass was a giant sinkhole – roughly 500 yards across and deep enough, the bottom far below was dark and murky. It was less than a mile deep but it was hard to estimate at the angle they were looking down from by just how much.
It was also a town – buildings ringing the whole hole in a giant coiling spring-like shape. Built mostly into the ‘cliff’ face, these buildings were fronted by slanting blue roofs that seemed to almost grow out of the face behind them. The end of the coil pulled into itself roughly 100 stories down – high above the bottom of the pit – but rope ladders extended down haphazardly from the last level.
Light only reached the top few stories – the sun was far enough down in the sky that most of the town was in shadow – but it was open enough only the last few levels were truly dim.
Set at nine equidistant sections along the walls were inset spiral staircases connecting each story vertically. Looking closer, the group could see people wandering the paths – frequenting a band of stories over halfway up.
The bottom half of the town seemed to get worse and worse – like a mixture between a slums and war zone most of the floors were broken off completely but the occasional shelf sat mostly floating in space – connected to higher floors by rope ladders or messed up looking bridges.
A cough sounded out and Maddy jumped – spinning her head to notice an old man sitting on a box just inside the gate on the left.
“Alromel?” The man asked in a weak tone before sighing and swiping his hand through the air at their curious expressions – speaking again this time changed.
The entrance is closing soon.
If you wish to enter bandpass before nightfall please do so.
A blue box floated up in front of Maddy – and presumably her teammates as well based on Troy’s twitch.
Not an achievement, just a text box with words – one made by the old man.
“We are coming in.” Maddy nodded stepping onto the spiralling street. Slowly the old man stood up and shambled past them. He stepped just to the entrance then poked his head out and looked around. The old man nodded to himself after a few seconds and moved over to one of the gates – beginning to push.
This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
Slowly but surely the door began to close and Maddy stepped forward to help – handing her scythe to Troy and grabbing the edge of the door by the gatekeeper.
This was probably the first time Maddy noticed just how the stats in her arms had changed her. The door was thick and attached to massive pistons inside the stone. Digging in Maddy pushed – her added force quickly closing the one side of the gate.
Nodding gratefully and smiling at her – a glint of a blood red tooth on his face was all the motivation Maddy needed to switch to the other gate. Moving over she began pulling it around – Jess had grabbed on as well and between the two of them the gate was shut with little trouble.
🚪 Achievement get: Help the gateman. (Unique)
Description: Sometimes a good deed goes unrewarded. Not this time, you helped a gatekeeper close up for the night out of the goodness of your heart.
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Stat: +1 Body strength.
Watching the gatekeeper spin a handle and latch the two metal blocks together, the group continued on walking down the sloping street.
All around them, a dull foreign clatter seemed to grow – hundreds of people speaking in a strange musical language. Some of the citizens were bartering, some lounging in comfortable but dangerous-looking seats that hung out over the edge – the majority of the drop between the street and the “Pit” was not protected with a railing.
Osha would not approve – there were children running about.
That’s when Maddy started to notice the town seemed proper – built in an implausibly impractical area but for the most part it had a “real” feeling the tutorial had lacked. Little grooves occasionally ran across the street – dumping potential liquid into the pit. Far below she recognized what looked like families occupying homes.
Technology in this town was strange, there seemed to be a large number of what looked like carved bones being used as tools or shaped into weapons or furniture. That gave Maddy pause for a moment – imagined scenarios of this being some cannibal tribe ramping through her mind before she calmed down once more.
She was good with people, no one here felt malicious – she was positive it was a relatively safe place to be…giant hole notwithstanding.
The other main component of Bandpass tools seemed to be polished amber-like stones. Murky crystals with strange shapes inside of them – seemingly embedded into cloths and leathers and curved bones.
Hello, travellers!
Come in and browse my shop!
A blue box wafted over from a open counter, the wide open window showing a room full of what appeared to be jewelry.
“Want to go in?” Maddy asked her crew then pulled them into the shop wanting a closer look.
A couple was standing near the back of the room each showing off a warm – but ultimately greedy looking expression. They felt like they were calculating how much profit they could make off the crew – trying to gauge how much money they had, how gullible they seemed.
Is this your first time in bandpass?
The woman asked, breaking away from her husband and stepping up towards Maddison.
“Yes, I’m sorry, I don’t think I speak your language. Do you understand English?”
Still smiling the women gently pulled her by the arm over to a rack of necklaces each set with small red gems. Picking a worn one off a hook near them she motioned and then fastened it around Maddy’s neck.
Please feel free to talk freely now.
“This is…what? A translator?”
There was something when Maddy spoke – a vibration on her chest and the women nodded.
Highest quality, only 498 pips and 10 hours guaranteed. I also have the incredibly rare response version for 999 pips but its held in the back for safety.
Probably a tourist trap but that doesn’t even matter does it…how much is a pip? How do I get them?
“I don’t have any money, how do I get these ‘pips?’ what are they worth?” Maddy asked noting the slight glaze that crossed the woman’s face.
The sigh she made wasn’t translated but her question after was.
Are you confident in your weapon? You could join a hunting expedition or try your luck at the dungeon. Could also work as a pit monkey if you want to be safe.
Pulling Maddy over a few shelves the shopkeeper pointed out several smaller – and noticeably less complex looking necklaces made of lower quality materials.
If you manage to find some money I have some budget options as well, this one is a reliable responder, Can respond yes, no, maybe. 1000 responses stored. Won’t let you communicate well but at least you can respond to others with it. 3 pips.
…couldn’t I just nod or shake my head?
This one is a similar model for the simple folk. Allows you to request:
food,
a bed,
surrender,
call someone a ‘fuckwit’,
say you are friendly,
ask for work,
tell people you want to buy or sell something
and finally ask for the nearest status hall.
It’s harder to use – you’ll have to touch each of the clips along the sides to make any of those responses. Minimum 700 or so responses guarenteed. Might reach as high as a 2000 if you spread uses out before it breaks. 99 pips. Popular model with travelers.
Finally I have the flawed universals.
Pausing the women pulled off an intricate necklace of her own, carefully storing it in her pouch. Next she reached across to a cabinet and pulled out a lumpy gem – one that looked forcefully held together as if someone had fused several smaller gems into one.
Placing it around her neck she spoke once more her voice overlaid and not silenced by the box that narrated her thoughts.
This non-alternative is ---, It’s for the largest piece operative yet inclines -- homogenize speech-words and timber --- is falsely endorsed for ------ that hungers to be handled nicely in society. I’ll kill you if you procure it --- 20 pips.
Maddy stared across at the shopkeeper.
“That’s…not just a bad translation. I’m pretty sure you just said you’d kill me there at the end”
Wincing the shopkeeper placed it back in the shelf before returning to her ‘good’ translator.
As I said, it occasionally changes the meaning and tone of your words. I don’t recommend it. Cheap however. Now, if you aren’t going to buy anything I’m going to have to ask you to return the free trial product.
Pulling the device off Maddy’s head before she could continue asking questions, the women shooed her back towards her teammates sending a last message before they left.
Come again if you end up receiving some money!
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---James---
James walked through the bustling streets of ‘Ser’ feeling like he was in the midst of an industrial re-enactment. Every building was ‘enhanced’ with mechanical nick knacks and doodads in some manner – doors opened and closed automatically using pressure plates, tanks of random substances rolled about on rails. Those tanks were pushed by little mechanical trolleys now that James could see their backside. People traveled on little steam-powered carts.
It was suffocating – James was rapidly realizing he had been having more fun walking in ‘nature’ than he was this ‘settlement’.
People spoke in a strange clicking language – occasionally slipping into a vowel heavy dialect and using strange bracelets to shout blue boxes of information at each other and everyone nearby.
Reaching the center of town, James found a map – a billboard of sorts, one side dedicated to a close up of the town, the other set to the surroundings.
Important to James was the surrounding map and – after looking around to make sure he wasn’t in anyone’s way – he stood in front of it for a while trying to memorize his surroundings.
The map was static but had square boxy labels that looked something like an E-reader’s paper screen – the text a specific mechanical-looking font detailing information in English. As James watched someone walked past him – passing closer to the side of the board and thus triggering a few labels to flicker to some different language. A few seconds after they passed the text faded back to something readable.
Offset in the bottom middle lay a huge blank circle detailing ‘old tech, isolation barrier’. The tutorial ‘zone’ was denoted as 5km in diameter – a nearly twenty square kilometer area of question marks.
Pretending there were rings coming out of the center of the map, a dotted line was placed 15km out and then 45km out – getting cut off by what the map was showing but still clearly shown as round squiggly rings. Each ring in the map was denoted as a zone, ‘Tier 0, Tier 1, Tier 2’ – and inside those zones there were smaller pockets of ‘+’ some number and a symbol that James found in a legend denoted ‘monster den’.
Assuming Ser was in the north side of the map, to the far south – directly on the other side of the tutorial zone – a point denoted ‘bandpass’. Moving around the map the east was mostly blank – a city noted as ‘Eros’ nearly at the edge of the board right beside what had to be either a lake or the sea. High above Ser – bordering the line between Tier 1 & 2 – was a city with a star beside it – ‘Nox’.
All across the west however, was a steadily growing block of ‘badlands’ full of scull marks and danger symbols.
For the most part the entire map was connected by both thick roads and smaller foot paths but none of them travelled into the badlands.
“So if I want to fight monsters I should head there no?” James spoke to himself tapping the badlands curiously.
Beware! Bad land that way. Very bad land. Polluted, corrupted place.
James was surprised by the blue box popping into his view turning his head to find a child staring up at him.
You’ll die if you go there. Lots of monsters
“…can you understand me?” James asked cautiously noting the child’s eyes flicking a few times as he read some invisible screen.
Of course, Pa’s been working on the personal translator. If you wish to test yourself there are much safer options than the badlands – do you want to help me? I lost my prototype grasper in the dungeon’s first floor.
Retrieve it for me and I’ll tell you a bit about the world, give you some chips for your troubles.
What do you say?
Accept quest?
Yes No